Low loading Pt catalysts based on Ni59Nb40Pt0.6X0.4 (X = Pd, Rh, Ru, Co) as anodes and Nafion XL membranes as support in PEMFCs

• Amorphous alloys produced by Mechanical Alloying were applied as anodes in PEMFCs.
• The fuel tests were carried out at different temperatures.
• The anode Pt loadings (0.01–0.05 mg cm−2) are below the values generally reported.
• The anode catalysts based on Ni59Nb40Pt0.6Pd0.4 alloy exhibited better performance.

PEMFCs are considered to be clean and efficient electrochemical energy sources. Nevertheless, the commercialization of PEMFCs needs to tackle the high cost of the catalyst layers that contain platinum-based electrocatalysts. The reduction of the platinum content is therefore one of the challenging goals to achieve within fuel cells technologies. The amorphous bi-metallic electro-catalysts studied in this work were Ni59Nb40Pt0.6X0.4 (X = Pd, Rh, Ru, Co) and they were produced by Mechanical Alloying (MA) and used as anodes onto Nafion XL (DuPont™) perfluorinated membranes. A commercial Pt/C catalyst was used on the cathode side. The operating conditions have been 100% relative humidity (RH) and gas and cell temperatures of 25 °C, 40 °C, 60 °C and 80 °C. Experiments were carried out on a single PEM fuel cell with an active area of 25 cm2. These electro-catalysts were characterized by both physical and chemical techniques, such as Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The results showed that at 80 °C, the anode amorphous electrocatalyst based on Ni59Nb40Pt0.6Pd0.4 is the one that provides the best performance in terms of power and current.